Irish bishop, aide to popes, quits in sex inquiry

Sat Mar 7, 2009
DUBLIN (Reuters) - An Irish bishop who served as a private secretary to three popes has quit his daily duties to deal with a sex-abuse inquiry in his diocese, the Roman Catholic Church said on Saturday.

John Magee, bishop of Cloyne in the south of Ireland since 1987, has been under fire for his handling of reports of sexual abuse in his diocese.

The church's moral authority in overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Ireland has been eroded in recent years following a string of clerical sex abuse scandals, many of them involving priests molesting young boys.

The church has been faulted in large part for appearing to cover up the scandals, often by transferring priests to different parishes after complaints were made.

Magee had faced calls to resign since a commission set up by the church found last year his diocese had exposed children to risk by not responding appropriately to abuse allegations.

Magee will keep his title as bishop but Pope Benedict has appointed Archbishop Dermot Clifford as apostolic administrator to run the diocese, the church said.

"The decision of the Holy Father to grant that request is an indication of the importance which the Church gives to safeguarding children and caring for the needs of victims," Cardinal Sean Brady, archbishop of Armagh and primate of All Ireland, said in a statement.
Magee, born in 1936 in Northern Ireland, welcomed Clifford's appointment.

"This appointment will enable Bishop Magee to devote the necessary time and energy to cooperating fully with the government Commission of Inquiry into child protection practices and procedures in the Diocese of Cloyne, as he has already committed himself to do," the diocese quoted Magee as saying on its website.

Magee served as private secretary to popes Paul VI, Pope John Paul I and Pope John Paul II and in 1982 he was appointed Master of Pontifical Ceremonies.